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Teachers approve contract

Deal means no picket lines to mar the new school year

By Katherine Petersen

The more than 400 teachers in the high school teachers' union overwhelmingly approved two contracts Aug. 29, closing the book on an 18-month-long labor dispute.

By a vote of 353 to 14, the high school teachers' union ratified a contract with a retroactive pay raise of 7.41 percent for the 1996-97 school year.

Teachers voted 299 to 68 to approve a contract with additional pay raises through the year 2000.

The board of trustees will vote on the contracts at its Sept. 2 meeting.

Superintendent Joe Hamilton recommended that the board approve the contract, but said that it will decrease the district's flexibility in adding new programs without making reductions in other areas.

"For the next few years we will have to be very careful in our expenditures. I think it's a fair contract and places the district's future financial resources into teachers' salaries," he said. "This is appropriate, since teachers and our support staff are our most valuable resource."

The new three-year contract calls for at least a 5 percent raise over the 7.41 percent base line for the 1997-98 school year.

Teachers will receive more raises during the period of the contract as a set percentage of district revenues, which come primarily from property taxes.

Teachers' salaries will be more competitive with those of surrounding districts over the next few years, predicted union President George Gredassoff.

"We're very pleased with the result. The membership has taken on some responsibility for its own future, and we're anxious to get started with school," Gredassoff said. The district will continue to provide teachers with medical benefits. But the union will study the pros and cons of allowing teachers the option of taking those benefits in cash instead of as an insurance package.

The union is also looking into ways to save money on benefits. These savings would go directly back to the teachers, not into the district's general fund, Gredassoff said.

Not only will the teachers receive monetary gains, they will also have control over the district's reserves. New reserve accounts can be established only by a state law or with the union's consent.

After a break in talks, the union and the district began negotiating again near the end of June, shortly after the resignation of former Superintendent Mary Panucci.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, September 3, 1997.
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